June/July Travel from DC - Flights are CRAZY expensive

flip-flop · Post by **flip-flop** » Mon Feb 11, 2013 2:30 pm

Anyone have any advice for booking for a late june - early july (post carnival) trip from DC. We have been this time of year but not through the 4th of july. I am wondering if the flights are normal or if I should wait. I booked a flight for March and it was in the mid-$300s.

This will be trip #12 or something and we have NEVER paid more than $550, usually in the $380-$450 range. Flights are in the upper 600s to 700s. What is going on!?!?!

liamsaunt · Post by **liamsaunt** » Mon Feb 11, 2013 3:08 pm

We booked last night and got a decent price out of Boston by choosing to fly on the 4th itself. We are going to spend a couple of days on STT to avoid the Carnival craziness before going over to St. John. Try flexing your dates a bit.

flip-flop · Post by **flip-flop** » Mon Feb 11, 2013 3:41 pm

I've been trying that on both ends, but unfortunately, flying on the 4th itself isn't an option. I just realized I can get 3 FF tickets, so I just have to buy for the hubby to fly separately, if we come in a day early.

I am just wondering how long I should wait before just taking the plunge and accepting these are indeed the prices!

AquaGirl · Post by **AquaGirl** » Mon Feb 11, 2013 3:53 pm

How about United - $573 for Sun, June 30 to Sun, July 7th. Its still higher than prices we saw for April/May, but less than $600.

flip-flop · Post by **flip-flop** » Mon Feb 11, 2013 3:59 pm

Ideally we are looking for june 28-july 7, but willing to add a day or two on either end. Preferably the front end, and find a cheap spot for a night or two.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 7:48 am

My wife and I were looking at the last week of June to take our 6 & 7 year old Grandsons. Air fare started at $600.00 each which put the trip out of reach for us. We checked with our children about the possibility of taking them out of school for a week and we got the ok from both. We booked for May and Air fare was 40 % less than in June. We will make sure they bring school work with them to lessen the impact of missing a week of studies. The travel industry always raises their costs when the kids are out of school pricing some families out of many of travel options.

waterguy · Post by **waterguy** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 8:20 am

Did you try using Kayak and selecting near by airports for where your leaving from I did this for our 1/1 trip and saved 700 a ticket we flew out of ORD and back into MKE was a little hassle to drop the car off at MKE and take the train to ORD but for `1400 I could be put up with it

mbw1024 · Post by **mbw1024** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:25 am

I was trying like heck to get down last fall and the fares were in the $600-700 range. I finally gave up and just took a year off from STJ. Started looking for fares as soon as I could for this year and ended up with a FF ticket but could only make it work for a 2 week stay. Poor me.
Had to purchase the additional ticket and got it for around $500. Not too bad all in all but mind you this is way off season at end of Sept/early October.

amy5233 · Post by **amy5233** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:29 pm

If you book thru Orbitz, they will refund any decrease in airfare back to you. We received a refund check for almost $200 last time we booked early. The check doesn't come until after the trip as I recall, but it was still a nice perk.

PA Girl · Post by **PA Girl** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:39 pm

mbw1024 wrote:I was trying like heck to get down last fall and the fares were in the $600-700 range..

Yep, last summer we could not find any fare that we could stomach from Philly, dc, NYC or Newark. Every fare was high and stayed high with totally cr@p flight times. We ended up not going to STJ.

flip - I hope you have better luck!

sherban · Post by **sherban** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 10:40 pm

I use the ITA Matrix search software to find good rates...I think Kayak will get you similar results...I didn't hit the caribbean last year because rates were too stiff for us...this year we got RT tics less than $350 ATL to STT

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

Backtotheislands · Post by **Backtotheislands** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 11:25 pm

I've been looking. Our budget is tight. We have 2 weddings this summer and a new grandbaby born to our very poor college student and girlfriend/wife to be, plus remodeling the bedroom with new furniture (finally after 33 years!). Summer is HIGH!! I found great fares on Spirit for specific dates in Feb. and March (under $300 RT), but I'm a school teacher and can't just go anytime. One date for midweek of my spring break which would mean missing half a week of school right before our BIG state test. I considered it, but March is high season and we can't afford housing prices at that time. We like a private house with pool or in March, maybe just hot tub.
I so need my St. John fix! Hubby not as much, but I'm dying here! I just wanna be there, wanna lay beside the sea there!

lark22 · Post by **lark22** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 1:41 pm

Have you tried using Bing's airfare predictor? It used to be called Farecast -- tells you whether to buy now or wait depending on price trends and historical data.

I did a quick search on some random dates in June from DC to STT, and the Bing verdict was "wait", because fares would be dropping.

http://www.bing.com/travel/flights

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